Bed Outlet Removal for Diesel Heater

Apologies for bumping an old thread.

I was wondering did you get the diesel heater installed into the cubby in the end?

I'm looking to do something similar. I was going to get a friend to fab a steel box for me which would hold the heater, and then I'd just bolt it in place.

I would love to see some pictures, or if you have any tips, that would be great.

I'm trying to avoid drilling any more holes through the bed. If this setup works, it would make things a lot nicer

 

It’s diesel fuel powered- electric only for the blower, glow plug and fuel pump.

 

These work very well, instead of the unit shown above, I got one that was everything in a box, fuel pump, fuel tank and heater. It is forced air powered meaning the combustion chamber produces separate exhaust that you plumb to outside of the vehicle, and the heat comes out as clean air from a different outlet. There’s no carbon monoxide danger with these unless you let the exhaust fumes from the exhaust pipe come back into the truck.

I put this on the ground outside of the truck, and run a drier hose from the heater output to our RTT. I also have a long drier hose attached to the cool air intake to keep it even further away from the exhaust pipe.

5KW-8KW Diesel Air Heater All in One, Portable Diesel Heater, 12V Parking Heating for RV, Truck, Car, Trailer, Boat, Bus

$179 5KW-8KW Diesel Air Heater All in One, Portable Diesel Heater, 12V Parking Heating for RV, Truck, Car, Trailer, Boat, Bus

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BVTXVMMC

one thing for sure, a 5KW heater is overkill for the truck cab- get a smaller one.

 

I bought one of these a while ago and mounted it in a small case. It's got maybe two full tanks of diesel burned through it, at least 24hrs of run time. It still has a slight odor. It's not CO, my monitor wasn't detecting any so I put it behind my car to test (which it did detect). It's hard to describe the odor, doesn't smell of burning or exhaust. Anyone else have this experience?

 

I use a similar one for ice fishing. Keeps the tent from building up too much moisture on the walls.

 

Hot plastic?

 

Maybe? The smell is there as soon as airflow starts, but doesn't seem to worsen as flow/temperature is increased. I ran it without the hose to see if maybe that was it, but it didn't help. I have heard some needed to run it for a few hours to get rid of odor but I figured 24+ hours would have done it

 

Can you return it? I wouldn’t run it. If you have a smell, there might be at joint or something in the combustion chamber that’s leaking and letting fumes in. They normally put out just hot air. What do you have on the intake side?

 

There is a pretty helpful Fb group that talks about trouble shooting these heaters. From what I read a lot of the heater are sold with the incorrect mounting gasket (between the heater and the metal plate you mount it to). I think a lot are sent with rubber instead of silicone which gives off a smell when it gets hot.

Here's the link to the FB Group.

 

Mine had a strange smell too, I let it run for 3 days on high and it went away.

 

Thanks for the help guys!

 

This is how I installed mine:

 

Very similar to how I'm planning to do mine. Are your drawers tight to the wheel well? Also how's it been working for you here in Colorado? I've heard they can be finicky at altitude.

 

The drawer is tight to the wheel well and it has been working very well for us. It is a 2kw unit. Tuning for elevation is a little frustrating because these Chinese units come with mix matched parts a lot of times and you really have to know which fuel pump you have to tune it effectively. Once I figured out what size fuel pump I have, I was able to dial in my tune and I have used this thing effectively all the way up to 12k'

 

That's awesome! Yeah I know when I was measuring my drawers the 2KW looked like it would fit good but the 5kw was going to be tight. Do you feel like the 2kw puts out enough heat? Looks like you built a Ripcord wedge. I'm wrapping up a similar style full pop camper now. The internet is telling me that these heaters only run about 50% heat output when you get above like 9K'.

 

I like the 2kw for our camping. At 12k' and 25-30°s outside, it kept our camper at about 65-70°s inside.

 

Do you have any other pictures on what the set up looks from the outside ? I am trying to do the same thing but have found zero information. You are the only person I've found that has done this. Any additional info on steps or what you did to complete this would be super helpful.

 

This is my most recent update. I will try to snag a picture of what's going on under the truck soon.

 

I was just looking at your camper install on IG. funny to see you on this thread. Nice setup!

 

Haha, thanks. It's funny, all the wedge camper threads seem to come full circle.